National Schools Film Week (NSFW) provides teachers and their students the opportunity to see a wide range of films at local cinemas entirely free-of-charge. This year will be the 15th annual festival and it is available to any school. They welcome bookings of all sizes. Some schools will bring an entire Year group or Key Stage while others attend on a class-by-class basis. They do not limit places to any number of students or schools to any number of bookings. As long as there is space in the cinema, you are welcome!

The National Schools Film Week is the world’s largest festival for cinema & young people. This year’s dates are:

• England, Wales & Northern Ireland – 14-22 October 2010
• Scotland: 28 October-5 November 2010

Although these dates are a few months away, they are asking for requests now. My school put in our request this week, so get planning and see how you can get involved too!

My World in 60 Seconds is a film project for 11-14 year olds, set up by the Geographical Association, to create an alternative guide to our world, a guide that is created by you. The organisers want to re-present the world as people know it, so they are looking for young people to make short films that are thought provoking, insightful and engaging.

www.geography.org.uk/11-19/myworldin60seconds

60 seconds is just long enough to guide someone through part of your world, to show what it is really like for you. The best films can appear on BBC Big Screens across the country. A panel of judges will watch all the films and the ones that in their opinion best reflect what we are looking for could be shown. These films will also appear online as part of a guide to our world.

Find out more at the My World in 60 Seconds site.

An exciting competition is now open to young film makers. The Young Minds Digital Times Film competition is open to students in American grades 6-12 (or their international equivalents) and registration is free.

From their site… “The Second Annual Young Minds Digital Times Film Competition (YMDT) is a collaboration between KidThrive.org and Converge magazine to offer an innovative film competition for students around the world to showcase their work, compete against their peers and tackle pressing social issues. Kids have lots to say, ideas to share and talent to showcase, so we’ve created this competition as a learning opportunity for participants.”

Prizes include attendance of the Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, along with cash prizes for individual entries, for teachers and for schools with the most entries! Registration closes on 19th February 2010 and all entries should be submitted by 19th March, 2010.

If you’re entering the competition, good luck!

For those interested in using film in the classroom, the following sites are extremely useful:

• www.filmclub.org (run your own film club!)
• www.filmstreet.co.uk (learn all about movie making)
• www.filmeducation.org.uk (a charity which aims to support teachers to use film as an educational tool).

Film Education also send out regular newsletters which include updates about their free resources and materials for teachers. Their latest newsletter included invitations to the receptions and screenings for this year’s National Schools Film Week. Sign up to find out more.

Every so often at school, I’m able to run a staff meeting. I always enjoy these, as it’s a chance for me to share new ideas about ICT with other members of staff. Many of our ICT meetings are linked to new software or equipment that has arrived in school, but I wanted this one to be more general. Rather than focussing on one particular idea (which may not be appropriate to every year group), my aim was to share a number of different tools / tips / websites, which staff would then be able to choose from, to try within their teaching where appropriate.

As well as giving information verbally, I created a Smart Notebook file with further information, which is saved on our school’s network, so that staff can refer to it in the future. I’ve also uploaded the file here, in the hope that readers of this blog might be able to pick up a few tips as well.

Download Staff Meeting Notebook File
(Smart Notebook required)

If you don’t have Smart Notebook, here’s a brief outline of the things that I’ve mentioned in the file:

• Independent Maths Activities – using RM Maths and TutPup.
• Using Film in Literacy – with instructions showing how to download Youtube videos using KeepVid. I also added a link to the Film for Literacy wiki, which has examples of films that can be used in particular Literacy units.
• Travel the World – using sites like panoramas.dk and gigapan.org to develop Literacy, Geography and History skills.
• Smartboard Tricks – Children sometimes have difficulties dragging objects across the board, so you can use two fingers to make them jump from one place to another.
• Tools for making displays – Using 2Publish+ software to create banners, and blockposters.com to produce giant images.
• Typing Skills – helping children to type more quickly using 2Type, Dance Mat Typing or Sense Lang.

Which sites / applications / tools would you recommend if you were asked to run an ICT staff meeting?

Image: ‘three thirty‘